//------------------------------// // Chapter 6 // Story: Transformers Prime: Ponies in Disguise // by RavageXeno //------------------------------// They reached the library just as the first hints of pink were seen in the sky. The other ponies were waiting patiently outside for them to turn up, and they weren’t really surprised to find Starscream lagging behind Arcee and Rarity. Due to the combined weight of two suitcases, a hat box and an inflatable tent, which was balanced precariously on Starscream’s back and his wings were spread out to better support their weight. He stopped, slightly out of breath, before the group of ponies. Twilight quickly removed Rarity’s luggage and set it onto the floor before the exhausted stallion fell over. Instead he just stood there out of breath. “Rarity you don’t need all this luggage,” Twilight said giving Rarity an exasperated look. “We’re only going for a few days. I’ll have Spike send the luggage back to your house,” she continued as she magicked a note onto the table inside the library and teleported the luggage inside. “Let me assssure you missss, if you need anything it will be provided. Conssidering you will be sstaying with a prinse.” Nightshade said, she was still wearing her cloak, and didn’t seem to be planning on taking it off for the journey. Despite the predicted high temperatures of that day. “A prince?” Rarity said with trepidation, memories of the Grand Galloping Gala flashing through her mind. “He isn’t like Blueblood at all is he?” “I have never had the missfortune of meeting Blueblood sso I would not know,” Nightshade said, her green eyes flaring with distaste at the name. “Though poniess have ssaid that they sseem to be hardly - if disstantly - related at all.” “Well I’m glad about that,” Rarity said before she sighed with relief. “Now come along darlings, we had better head for the train station,” she said, getting the other ponies to start moving towards the station. The train ride to Baltimare was uneventful. If you could class being trapped in a confined space with a bubbly pink pony who became excited at the slightest provocation. Though due to the early hour the carriage they picked was empty, meaning that Pinkie wouldn’t be able to annoy anypony else. Currently, she was bouncing on the spot next to Twilight, demanding that she could throw the new ponies a party when they got to Baltimare. From Twilight’s stern expression, Starscream guessed what the response was. He was sat a few rows back from her, with Nightshade sat on the row in between them facing Twilight. Arcee sat across from him with Bumblebee, discussing the previous night at Rarity’s. Across the aisle Fluttershy, Rarity and Rainbow were sat talking amongst themselves. Pinkie didn’t really have a seat, she just bounced up and down the aisle, and sat with whoever she pleased whenever she pleased. Starscream looked at his new reflection in the window. Rarity had decided that his mane was too messy and picked out all of the red strands in his hair and merged them together to form a spike on his head. It kept reminding him of his old form. And the reason why he was on this wretched planet. Starscream kept thinking back to last night as he gazed out of the window and watched this new world stream past. Wandering aimlessly, his mind drifted back to the night before and the incident with the cupcake. After nearly falling off the stool again from laughing, Arcee managed to fetch a glass of water and throw it over his face. Reviving him from his temporary paralysis. Shocked, from both the freezing cold water and the act of kindness from one of his hated enemies. He warily got back onto his stool, looking at it as if it was going to bite him. Without a word Rarity had walked across the room, place a new cupcake in front of him and then walked out of the room. Scanning the immediate area quickly, he lunged at the delectable looking cupcake and viciously devoured it leaving no crumb spared, before that insidious white ball of cute-deathiness came back. After about a minute of going om-nom-nom and enjoying the unsurprisingly delicious cupcake, he realised that he was sat with an Autobot. Instantaneously, he swallowed any remainder of the treat and sat up straight. Whistling ‘innocently’ as he acted as if he was a saint. “Starscream, I know we have never exactly... seen optic to optic. But now I think we can see eye to eye,” Arcee said, placing her hooves on the table and looking Starscream in the eye. “While we are on this world, I don’t think we should be fighting each other,” she sighed. “Until we get back to our own dimension.” Starscream slowly tapped his hoof against his face for a moment. “This will sound very much like Optimus; but I agree, for the time being we should forget past differences of Decepticon and Autobot. And become Autocons?” “Well at least we didn’t get trapped in this dimension with Airachnid,” Arcee said as she shuddered at the thought. “This truce would’ve never worked with her.” “I always hated the spider freak, she kept undermining my commands and being all creepy. She even nicked my position as second in command!” he whined, his wings standing vertically up on his back. “It’s always about you isn’t it Starscream. You’re such a drama queen.” “I am not! What’s a drama queen?” Arcee just laughed. His mind was jolted back to the present when the pink mare jumped into the seat next to him. “How’s it going Screamer?” she said, nearly knocking him off of his seat. “Do you mind me calling you Screamer? Or do you think it’s a bit mean? Though Starscream is kinda a mouthful and it kinda gets repetitive after a while. So it’s much, much, much easier to just say Screamer instead. Anyhow, that’s what all your fans call you sometimes, or idiot. Though idiot is definitely mean...” As she continued with her epic monologue Starscream thought to himself, that this was going to be a veeeeery long journey. The train station was located on the outskirts of Baltimare at the end of main avenue which ran all the way through the center of Baltimare to the marina of Horseshoe Bay. In the horizon just over a small curve in the road they could just the tops of some of the masts of the Equestrian Trading fleet. The sun cast a warming golden glow across the city as it shone from between the clouds. Primus. This place looks like Bruticus came through here throwing a hissy-fit and the Constructicons tried to fix it whilst blindfolded and having formed Devastator thought Starscream as he got his first glance at the city. The city was similar in size to Canterlot, but lacked its built-on-the-side-of-a-mountain charm and its buildings were similarly designed to those in Ponyville, except these buildings were slightly larger. However they were all in various states of decay. On the outskirts of the city, some of the buildings were partially falling apart, with some even missing entire walls. Exposing the the abandoned contents of the deserted husks. the closer you got to the center of the city and the marina, the more maintained the buildings were, though even then, there was holes instead of windows and craters along fallen debris blocking roads. Some gardens had become overgrown, acting more like a mysterious jungle than a well kept front lawn. Ivy crawled up many of the buildings, making it seem that nature was trying to reclaim lost land. “What happened to this place?” Twilight asked as they made their way carefully down the street. “I thought Baltimare was meant to be the crown jewel of the Equestria Trading fleet. How can any highly esteemed business work from such a degrading place, no offence” Rarity said glancing at Nightshade before returning her gaze to where she was walking. “None taken missss. Our sity onse wass beautiful,” Nightshade said. She sighed, “but our tragic war hass ravaged our sity.” “War?” Fluttershy asked, hiding more under her mane than she already was at the thought of fighting. “Do not worry little one, there iss no fighting here. It iss merely that no money can be sspared away from the war effort,” Nightshade said leading them through the streets past piles of debris and the local populace who were moving around the city going through their everyday lives. “But who are you fighting? And why are all these ponies still here if there is a war going on?” Twilight said pointing to different ponies as they walked past. “All your quesstionss will be ansswered onse we arrive at our desstination,” said Nightshade before taking a solemn breath, “they remain becausse thiss iss their home.” When our war ravaged Cybertron, none of us were happy to leave our home thought Starscream as the group turned off main avenue and continued down a slightly smaller road. Which according to the sign was called Mountain Road. Continuing in silence they walked up the road, which got steeper the futher they walked. A fog bank clouded thier view of the end of the road. But behind it they could see the distant peaks of snow covered mountains. "The Manganesse Mountainss, our desstination ssitss at their feet," Nightshade said glancing around to make sure none of their party had gotten lost in the first contrails of fog. Fluttershy, unwilling to step into the gloomy fog had halted at it’s edge. Bumblebee having noticed her reluctance, turned and beeped a few words of encouragement to her. Smiling at the kind words, she slowly continued with her friends. To her surprise, Pinkie had wandered off and was bartering with a stall pony for a box of cakes. Unfortunately for Pinkie, the stall pony - a light grey pegasus with a yellow mane and tail - didn't sell cupcakes. Nonplussed she bought a bag of muffins and hopped back to the group with her prize. Handing each of them a muffin, she continued to follow the group down the street. Everypony slowed down slightly so they would be able to eat their muffin, except Fluttershy and Rainbow who flew slightly off the ground to eat theirs. Fluttershy kept offering bits of muffin to Lazerbeak who was perched on her shoulder. Adamant that he wouldn’t be shown up by the pair, he carefully watched them for a few moments and then himself lept into the air. Mirroring their wing beats, he was able to keep himself in the air whilst he ate his muffin. “So you actually can fly without crashing into something, hey Starscream,” Rainbow said as she noticed Starscream flying. “Come on Dashie, be nice. Screamer had only just got here,” Pinkie said leaping, literally, to his defence as she then landed between them. “I’m just playing Pinkie,” Rainbow said as she finished her muffin. “Hey Starscream how about I give you a flying lesson sometime?” she continued before collecting everyponies wrapper and taking them to a bin. Leaving Starscream with some time to consider the proposition. Saying yes and accepting help would be a very Autobot thing to do, and saying no and scoffing at the idea would be a very Decepticon thing to do. However in this dimension there is no Autobots or Decepticons, merely only Autocons? Starscream glanced at Arcee whilst he was considering his dilemma. She was having a conversation with Bumblebee, Fluttershy and Rarity. Thinking that it would be a weird thing to ask for their opinion he decided to not ask them. He then glanced at Nightshade who had turned around when she heard the conversation and was looking at the three of them flying off the ground with a look of longing, before she turned back around and continued her conversation with Twilight. “So Starscream what do you say?” she asked as she came back and flew next to him, though she was slightly higher than him. “Why the hell not, I mean what could possibly go wrong?” Starscream said glancing around at the foreboding fog. The fog wasn’t very thick, so you could see quite far ahead and the buildings on either side of the road. However, dense fog lurked between the run-down buildings, creating hidden passageways where anypony or anything could hide In the wisps of fog on the edge of his vision, Starscream saw strange faces. Which seemed to follow him down the road. Trying to distract himself from these strange images, he decided to talk with the arrogant pony who thought she would be able to beat him in a race. Like she would have a chance when i learned how to use these accursed wings properly, thought Starscream as they walked down the road talking. As the road climbed higher the cloud of fog started to dissipate revealing more and more of the road ahead of them. And of the mountains which were looming closer, at the base of which was their destination. “Poniess and phoenix, welcome to Casstle Darkmare,” said Nightshade turning to see their reactions to the revelation. As the fog finally cleared, everypony - except for Nightshade and Laserbeak - gasped at the sight of their destination. “Yeah Bee, you’re right. The name does sound familiar,” Arcee said, answering Bumblebee’s beeps and tones of his statement. The road continued on for a few meters, leaving the remaining few houses on the outskirts of the city behind. The road curved slightly as it made it’s ascent along the foot of the mountain, before it reached the first of the two dark metal portcullises. The outer wall of the castle - which was actually the wall to the courtyard - curved around and away from them, eventually both sides meeting up with the mountain. The outer walls were thick enough that they were large enough for entire rooms, which resulted in them being used as a barracks and the staff accommodation. A few smaller doors were dotted around the inside of the wall, creating entrances for the various ponies who were walking around the castle. The outer and inner edge of the outer wall was topped with battlements, and armed ponies in armour were patrolling along the top of the wall. Directly opposite the porticullises, was the entrance to the main part of the castle. Indicated by a large pair of intricate, dark mahogany doors. The main part of the castle also curved around from the main entrance, mirroring the outer wall but creating a much smaller circle before it too met the mountain. In the gap on the mountain where the outer wall met the main castle was another doorway, but this one was much smaller than the main entrance. It led to a small chamber which then in turn led to a mountain pass which was used to travel to the other side of the mountain. The main part of the castle rose to about a quarter of the height of the mountain, but that still meant that it was similar in height to Canterlot Castle. Three towers branched off the side of the main part of the castle, though they all stopped at different heights. The main building itself culminated in a tower itself, shrinking in diameter gradually until it widened out at the top to form a large room, complete with it’s own balcony overlooking the sea. About halfway up the main tower a fully enclosed bridge stuck out and joined onto the outer wall, at a room which was sat on top of the outer wall. This bridge was built directly alongside the mountain and was above the smaller doorway. The room - which was the throne room - seemed to only peak out slightly from the mountain, as it was built mainly in the mountain for a better defence. The castle was a light purplish colour with grey/purple cones on top of the towers, and like the rest of Baltimare it was ravaged by the effort of the war. In some places around the inside of the castle there were cracks lining the walls, ivy climbed around parts of the castle and some of the windows that pockmarked the interiour of the outer wall had broken panes of glass, which had been boarded up with planks of wood. Even the inside of the castle looked war-torn. The once lush, red carpet which greeted them and led them up the main staircase looked as if it was old a thousand years ago. The candles in the chandeliers were barely more than stubbs and most of the stairs on the main staircase groaned and creaked in agony with complaints about their misuse. Nightshade had explained all of the extra information to them as she led them through the courtyard, into the main hall and after going up the main staircase and across the stone bridge, into the throne room. Throughout the hasty tour, Rarity’s eyes had lit up like diamonds and were getting around the size of dinner plates before it ended. The throne room was slightly smaller than Celestia’s, and seemed to be slightly darker, which was probably due to the lack of windows and the small number of candles in the room. Though the candles were more than compensated by the two fire braziers on at the back of the raised platform that the throne was on. The room also contained multiple pillars like Celestia’s, but there was fewer of them here. The throne was made of a silver metal with a deep purple lining, and the flames created dancing patterns as they reflected off of it. Making the throne seem to shimmer. On the wall behind the throne was the family's coat of arms; a silver shield with two purple crystals crossed in the center, with the sun and crescent moon on either side of them. This coat of arms was also dotted around the rest of the castle on various flags and tapestries. “Poniess and phoenix, may I pressent, Prinse Demon Scar,” Nightshade said, introducing the pony who was stood proudly in front of the throne. He was a light grey unicorn, but of a slightly darker shade than Starscream was. He had a red and black mane and tail, and bright purple eyes, which kind of reminded Starscream of the colour of dark energon. He was wearing dark red armour with gold trimming - though he was only wearing the chest piece, not the helmet or shoes that the Royal Guards would normally wear - and a matching cape, which managed to completely cover his back and his cutie mark. Which they found out later was the shadow of a dragon which had a purple crystal in it’s tail. True to his name, he was covered in a multitude of scars, which seemed to range from ancient to blood red fresh. Just above where his armor reached, was a necklace which was a large blue crystal secured by a black band of metal. Looking up at him, standing in front of his throne, Starscream thought that he looked like a pompous douche-bag. Rarity however was of a different opinion, and was very close to fainting. “Welcome to Darkmare, I hope you have a pleasent stay,” Demon Scar said walking off the raised platform and going to introduce himself personally to everypony, who had lined up in front of the throne. “We are glad to be here Prince Demon Scar,” said Twilight as he picked up her hoof and kissed it in greeting. “You can just call me Scar, I hate all those pompous titles. It makes me sound like Blueblood,” he said shuddering at the thought. “It is good to meet you Twilight.” Next in line were Rainbow and Pinkie. He repeated the introduction and he was amused to see Pinkie grab his hoof in return and furiously shake it, so his arm was still wobbling when she let go. Next was Fluttershy, who true to her name was cowering slightly between Pinkie and Rarity, not just from Scar, but from his two lieutenants who were stood on either side of the throne. Two dragons. “Do not worry little Fluttershy, Brisingr and Draco will bring you no harm. I assure you,” he said after guessing what her fear was. In response to the statement, both dragons - who were both red and gold regal coppers - nealt on the floor and bowed their heads at Fluttershy, before both lying down. Calming down slightly, she stood up straight and allowed Scar to kiss her hoof. After he had introduced himself to Rarity, she proceeded to faint. To which Rainbow decided to kick her, so that she would hopefully wake up. “Is she going to be okay?” he asked looking at her with a puzzled look. To which she responded to, along with being kicked by Rainbow, by jumping up and exclaiming that she was okay. The rest of the introductions went straightforwardly, with Scar shaking hooves with Bumblebee and Starscream instead, and he just nodded at Laserbeak, who was perched on Starscream’s shoulder. Afterwards, Scar magicked cushions for the guests to sit on, though he prefered to stand at the bottom of the stairs of the raised platform. After all of that, Starscream thought that he wasn’t much of a pompous douche-bag after all. “Now I believe you are here to talk about portals and how to get those four home, I would like to firstly show you to where you would be staying and then have dinner. But I’m guessing you wouldn’t like to wait that long before getting answers,” Scar said guessing exactly what they were thinking, so they just nodded in response. “We aren’t 100% of how to work them, though if anypony would be able to figure it out, it would be my sister,” he said, glancing at the doorway as if he was expecting somepony. “She spent a lot of time with Megatronus.” “Megatronus!?” Arcee, Starscream and Bumblebee (in a loud tone) exclaimed, looking at him with a puzzled expression. “You’ve heard of him then,” he said. “Heard of him? He was one of the original Thirteen who battled against Unicron alongside Primus at the beginning of our history! Yes, we most definitely have heard of him,” Arcee said looking at him incredulously. “How do you know him?” “He’s an old family friend. He made my sister become slightly obsessed with portals for a while,” he said. “I think that I’m still slightly obsessed with portals... and combustible lemons for that matter,” a cloaked pony said as she - who was apparently Scar’s sister - walked into the room. She nodded a greeting to Nightshade - who was on her way out as she said that she had things to do - and to the ponies who were sat at the bottom of the raised platform as she made her way to her brother. “Let me introduce my... sister, Princess Demon Haunt” Scar said as she reached him and stood next to him. Though they didn’t look like the most loving brother and sister pair. “Please, call me Haunt. And I am sorry I am late, something... came up,” Haunt said, not making the move to greet the guests personally like her brother had. She sounded... odd, to Starscream who had been used to the Cybertronian tones from his own dimension, and after traveling across half of Equestria with Nightshade. “Haunt I believe you are-” Twilight said before being interrupted by a messenger who came crashing through the doors, exclaiming something about a message from ‘The Queen’. Sensing that this was something important - though having no idea who or what this ‘Queen’ was - the ponies directly in front of Scar moved out of the messengers way. Though he stopped halfway along the room, seemingly out of breath and with one of his front hooves lifted partly off of the floor. “What is it?” Scar asked, seemingly unnerved. “Go. To. Hell.” the pony sneered, whilst simultaneously, morphing his raised hoof into a menacing looking gun. Firing a blinding blast that flew straight at Scar. However, Haunt pushed her brother out of the way before taking the hit directly herself. She slammed backwards into the throne before bouncing off and landing on the floor. Unmoving. Unwilling to be stopped by anypony in the room, the messenger dissolved into thousands of tiny flies. Dispersing quickly out of the castle and out into the midday heat, pleased with their success.